The Daily MuckThe Justice Department’s review of the nation’s terrorist watch list reveals that the list is incomplete, not up to date, and inaccurate. Many of the agencies that contribute information to the list, which is managed by the Terrorist Screening Center, lacked standard rules for sharing relevant data, and FBI field agents submitted names to the list without proper vetting. (LA Times)
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is now investigating alleged conflicts of interest within the scientific panels that help shape policy at the Environmental Protection Agency. Of most immediate concern is the “case of eight scientists who were consultants or members of EPA science advisory panels assessing the human health effects of toxic chemicals while getting research support from the chemical industry on the same chemicals they were examining.” Meanwhile, Deborah Rice, a prominent toxicologist, was removed from an EPA panel when the The American Chemistry Council questioned her objectivity. (AP)
The U.S. government is now in the business of censoring artwork by Guantanamo Bay detainees. Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese cameramen for the Al-Jazeera TV network, commemorated his 431st day on hunger strike by drawing a picture that reflects the “nightmares of what I must look like, with my head double-strapped down, a tube in my nose, a black mask over my mouth, with no eyes and only giant cheek bones,” but the government will not release it. Lawyers for al-Haj have hired a political cartoonist to create drawings based on al-Haj’s descriptions. (USA Today)
During a surprise morale-boosting visit to the troops in Baghdad, Vice President Dick Cheney praised the “phenomenal” security improvements. Shortly after his remarks, a female suicide bomber killed more than 40 innocent people and injured more than 50 in a crowded pedestrian area in Karbala. On the day that Cheney ventured “a mile or so” outside the Green Zone, the U.S reported the death of two more soldiers, bringing the total death count to 3,990. (McClatchy)
Next month, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) and Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH), will appear before The Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007 to answer questions about vote stealing in an Agriculture Department appropriations bill. The costly investigation focuses on a late night vote in which the presiding officer ended the vote - at Hoyer’s instruction - “at a moment when the electronic voting board showed Republicans were succeeding in their attempt to amend the bill.” After “turmoil ensued” and “more votes were switched,” the Democrats declared victory in the vote. (Washington Post)
The National Republican Congressional Committee, already reeling from the embarrassing embezzlement of several hundred thousand dollars and a few hundred thousand more that is apparently missing, is bracing itself for a fine from the Federal Elections Commission (when the FEC actually has enough commissioners to conduct business). One campaign finance lawyer who manages numerous Republican campaign committees believes that the the NRCC will “get dinged.” (Politico)
AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and MoveOn.org are at the center of new coalition of labor and liberal political organizations that hope to spend $150 million this fall to help Democratic candidates. The AFL-CIO intends to spend more than $53 million targeting John McCain and “individual unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, a coalition of seven unions representing about 6 million workers, also are expected to spend about $300 million.” (AP)
Mother Jones interviews Emmy award-winning investigative journalist Aram Roston about his new biography - Ahmad Chalabi, The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Adventures, Life and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi. Asked if he believes that Chalabi was passing secrets to Iran, Roston responded, “in the end, I came away thinking that the key question, from a U.S. perspective, was not whether or not Chalabi was an Iranian agent, but whether he was more useful to Iran’s intelligence services and government, or to America’s intelligence services and government. Here I think it was indisputable that he was far more useful to Iran.” (Mother Jones)